Stressed About School
by Agent Awesome
Summary: Story takes place the summer before Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo start middle school, and is about how they deal with the drastic change in their lives.
1. Totally Freaking Out!

A/N: I, unfortunately, am not the owner of Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo, or any other Lizzie characters, nor the Digital Bean. I only wish I was, so please do not sue me!  
  
This story takes place the summer before Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo start middle school (grade seven), and is about how they deal with the huge change in their lives.  
  
"Lizzie, Miranda, you two need to calm down," one of Lizzie McGuire's two best friends, David Gordon, or Gordo, as he preferred to be called, told her and her other best friend, Miranda Sanchez. They were both totally freaking out, but they had a reason to.  
  
"Calm down? Gordo, how can we calm down when middle school is only a week away?" Lizzie asked. She was so worried that she wasn't even drinking her smoothie, which was slowly melting as they sat at their usual table at the Digital Bean, talking.  
  
Animated Lizzie: How can Gordo even think about being calm at a time like this?  
  
"I just don't see why you two are making such a big deal out of something that isn't really that bad," Gordo replied.  
  
"Isn't really that bad? Tell him, Lizzie," Miranda said.  
  
"Gordo, this is a huge deal. We are going from sixth grade to seventh grade. Elementary school to middle school. In middle school, there is going to be stricter teachers, grosser cafeteria food, and loads more homework! It's like a horror movie, and we're walking straight into the monster's trap!" Lizzie explained.  
  
"That's interesting. I've never heard anyone use that description for seventh grade before," Gordo observed.  
  
"Gordo!" Lizzie and Miranda both exclaimed.  
  
"I just think that you guys are overreacting," Gordo said.  
  
"Overreacting? Gordo, we are reacting just fine. I think you are underreacting!" Miranda said.  
  
"I just don't see why you guys are freaking out about grade seven. I mean, in grade six they taught us so that we are properly prepared for it, and we obviously are, or we wouldn't have passed. And our parents are all saying they remember when they were in grade seven and telling us all of these long, boring stories about how much fun they had, and saying that we have no need to be worried about it, so why should we be?" Gordo asked.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Gordo does have a point there. Mom has told me plenty of stories about the fun she had in grade seven...but on the other hand, it's grade seven!  
  
"Gordo, you actually listen to those stories your parents tell you?" Miranda asked.  
  
"Yeah, and Gordo, if it isn't such a big deal, then why is everyone acting like it is?" Lizzie agreed.  
  
"Ethan Craft is so worried that he forgot to put hair gel in his hair yesterday when we saw him at the mall!" Miranda exclaimed.  
  
"Miranda, are we talking about the same Ethan Craft here? Because, if we are, he has a reason to be worried," Gordo said. "And Lizzie, just because everyone acts like it's such a big deal doesn't mean that it is."  
  
"Yeah, but it's not just our peers. It's our parents, too. My mom and dad are always going on about how grown up I am now that I'm going into middle school, and about how growing up comes with lots of responsibilities, and it scares me," Lizzie said.  
  
"Same here," Miranda put in. "Even though I got a raise in my allowance because I was going into grade seven, I also got a few more jobs added to my chore list."  
  
"And it's the teachers, too!" Lizzie pointed out. "Didn't you hear all of our elementary school teachers on the last day of school, Gordo? They were all saying how grown up and mature we are getting, and about how they can't believe that we are actually going into middle school already, and they sounded so sad."  
  
"Two teachers cried!" Miranda added.  
  
"And then, when we went with our parents to the tour of the middle school, you saw how big it was! You definitely know that we are going to get lost at least twice. And you heard the principal. We have to remember to bring everything to every class, or else we get a detention. At the end of every class we have to go all the way to our locker, put our books in, take out our books for the next class, and get there, all in five minutes, and if we're late, we get a detention, and trust me, Gordo, people like Miranda and I do not do well in dentention. Also, they were saying that they expect all homework assignments to be completed on time, and about how in every class we have to act like the mature young adults we are and behave, and that we have to accept all of these responsibilities like that! It's just starting to sound like way too much for us to handle," Lizzie said.  
  
"I still say that you guys are overreacting just a tiny bit. I heard all of that stuff, but I also heard the teachers tell us that we would get the hang of it in no time, and that all year they have been teaching us to handle stuff like that for this year. They wouldn't have passed us if they didn't think that we were ready to take on the responsibility," Gordo replied.  
  
"Whatever. We're outie," Lizzie said.  
  
"Yeah, we have to go shopping for school supplies with our moms," Miranda explained.  
  
"Alright. Don't worry about the smoothies, it's my turn to pay," Gordo told them. "And remember, don't stress over it!" he called after them as they headed out the door.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen.  
  
A/N: In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am an eleven-year- old who is going to start grade seven in the fall myself. The feelings expressed by Lizzie and Miranda are my feelings, and since I don't know if I am right or not yet, this story may not be finished until fall. Please R&R if you have any comments or suggestions about the story, and any advice for me would be greatly appreciated also! ~Lyss :) 


	2. Shopping For School Supplies

"Can you believe Gordo?" Miranda asked Lizzie. They were now searching for the school supply aisle in a store. Their moms had given them each forty dollars, told them to meet them in the food court at three, then headed into their favorite clothing store, leaving Miranda and Lizzie free to shop for school supplies by themselves. Lizzie was relieved that her mom hadn't insisted on helping them shop, because she probably would have suggested the hot pink personalized pencils that Lizzie had spotted on her way in (those went out of style two years ago, and never came back in), and insisted on getting Lizzie a binder with a cartoon picture of a kitten on it. It was cute, but she had had a binder like that in the third grade, and she didn't think that it would exactly be considered cool in middle school.  
  
"No, I honestly can't," Lizzie said. "I mean, I admire him for his laid-back, stress-free ways, but you got to admit, when he isn't worried about starting middle school, something is seriously wrong with him."  
  
Animated Lizzie: Sometimes you think it's great to have a best friend who isn't worried about anything, and other times you think he's completely off his rocker. This is one of those times.  
  
"My thoughts exactly," Miranda agreed. "Oh, here we go, school supplies!" she added, turning down an aisle lined with shelves full of binders, folders, papers, notebooks, pens, pencils, and other tools for school. Lizzie's heart skipped a beat familiarly, like it always did when she went shopping for school supplies. It was so much fun choosing new things to use in school.  
  
"So, what do we need?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"Hang on," Miranda said. She fished around in her zebra-striped purse until she found the school supply list. She handed it to Lizzie.  
  
"Grade seven school supply list for Hillridge Junior High School," she read(even though it was called a junior high school, some people called it a middle school, too). She felt her heart sink all the way down to her feet when she remembered that they weren't shopping for just any school supplies, but grade seven school supplies. "One two inch binder, two one- and-a-half inch binders, pencils, and blue or black ink pens," she listed. "Because every teacher teaches a little differently, they will inform you what else you will need for their classes on the first day of school."  
  
"There's another scary thought," Miranda said. "Now that we are in grade seven, every teacher will have different expectations, and we need to remember them all, as well as live up to them all!"  
  
Animated Lizzie: Oh, great. Living up to and remembering every individual teacher's expectations. Another thing to stress about.  
  
"Yeah. Gordo is lucky. He's so smart that he doesn't have to worry about living up to middle school teachers' expectations, because he's already exceeded all of the elementary school's!" Lizzie agreed.  
  
"That's probably why he is so calm. Because he knows that he'll have no problem!" Miranda exclaimed.  
  
"He better remember that even though he is considered smart in elementary school, he might not be considered smart in middle school. He has to work twice as hard to get the same grades that he got in elementary school," Lizzie reminded her friend.  
  
"Yeah, or else he is going to become as...dull as Ethan Craft," agreed Miranda, taking a moment to search for the perfect word to describe Ethan's lack of genius without totally dissing their crush.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Miranda made a tiny bit of an understatement there. Ethan Craft is a little more than dull. Let's just say that in a box of crayons, the brightest being the smartest, he would be grey.  
  
"Let's just look for our school supplies," Lizzie said, not wanting to talk about Gordo's calmness or Ethan's dumbness anymore. It was starting to make her head spin.  
  
Animated Lizzie: First Gordo doesn't freak out about middle school, then Miranda brings up how the guy that we have a huge crush on isn't exactly as smart as he is handsome...I'm becoming confused.  
  
"This is neat," Miranda said, holding up a pink zipper binder with a rainbow on the front.  
  
"Miranda, we can't get that!" Lizzie exclaimed.  
  
"Why not? It's in our price range," Miranda asked.  
  
"Because we're in middle school now! It would be like getting a binder with a purple unicorn on it!!" Lizzie explained. "Totally not cool!"  
  
"I guess you're right," Miranda said after examining it for a second. "It's more for a fourth grader, huh?"  
  
"Yeah," Lizzie agreed. "Cool, but not in a seventh grader way."  
  
"There's another thing that I hate about middle school. The 'cool' and 'uncool' factors change drastically, leaving people like me clueless," Miranda said.  
  
"Ditto here," seconded Lizzie. "Just try to think cool."  
  
"What kind of cool?" Miranda asked.  
  
"Seventh grader cool," Lizzie replied.  
  
"Like this?" asked Miranda, picking up a green camouflage-print zipper binder.  
  
"Exactly," answered Lizzie. "Does this say 'I'm a seventh grader' to you?" she questioned, showing her best friend a clear frosted binder with a purple edge.  
  
"Definitely," Miranda answered. Lizzie grabbed a teal one of the same sort, and chose a black zipper binder with pink fuzzy pom-poms also. Miranda chose two other binders, a plain blue one and a plain flamingo pink one, and after they had grabbed a package of pencils, a package of pens, and a pack of paper each, and paid for their stuff, they headed to the food court to meet their moms.  
  
At the food court, Miranda and Lizzie showed their mothers their school stuff.  
  
"Oh, it's all so cool!" Lizzie's mom exclaimed.  
  
"You girls have such style," agreed Miranda's mom.  
  
"Lizzie, didn't you get any of those cute personalized pencils this year?" her mom asked.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Here we go again with the personalized pencils.  
  
"No, mom. They were sold out of my name," Lizzie told her mother. This wasn't a total lie. She hadn't stop to look for her name, so she didn't know for sure if they were actually out of her name or not. Even if they were in style, she wouldn't have gotten any. All of them had Elizabeth on it, not Lizzie, and she hated having pencils that had her formal full name on them. It would have just reminded her of how mature she was supposed to be.  
  
"Really? That's funny. They were sold out of your name last year, too. I guess Elizabeth is becoming quite a popular name," commented Mrs. McGuire.  
  
"Yeah, I guess it is," Lizzie agreed. She shot a look of relief at Miranda, who returned it.  
  
"I can't believe that you girls are going into grade seven," Mrs. Sanchez mused. "It's seems like just yesterday you two were all excited about going into grade one."  
  
"Yeah, our little girls are really growing up," agreed Lizzie's mom. Miranda and Lizzie exchanged worried and exasperated looks. Their moms just had to remind them of how much they were stressed about starting middle school.  
  
Animated Lizzie: This is only, like, the one billionth time they've commented on how fast we're growing up!  
  
"Now you're all excited about starting seventh grade," Miranda's mom said. "You're going to have lots of fun, too. I remember when I was in middle school..."  
  
Animated Lizzie: And here comes the incredibly long, incredibly boring stories of our moms' adolesence. Again. They would be a whole lot more interesting to me if I hadn't heard them so many times before.  
  
Back at the McGuire house a few hours later, Lizzie's whole family was seated around the dining room table, eating dinner.  
  
"So, Lizzie, I heard you and mom went shopping for school supplies with Miranda and her mom today," Mr. McGuire said.  
  
"Yeah," Lizzie replied. "Miranda and I found everything that we needed. Oh, by the way, mom, it only said on the list to get three binders, pencils, paper, and pens because the teachers will tell us what else we need to bring on the first day, so I may need another ride to the mall in a week."  
  
"Oh, that's right. You're going into seventh grade, so every teacher is a little different, so they want students to have different supplies for different classes, and they tell you what they would like you to have besides the basics on the first day," Lizzie's dad explained.  
  
"Our little Elizabeth is growing up so fast," Matt said in a taunting voice, patting Lizzie on her head. Lizzie just scowled at him and pushed his arm away from her.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Great, even Matt's saying it now!  
  
"You know, Matt, you're growing up fast, too. You're going into grade five this year, buddy," Mrs. McGuire reminded him.  
  
"Did you have to say the 'f' word, mom?" Matt asked, wincing.  
  
"What 'f' word?" Lizzie's mom asked, confused.  
  
"Five," Matt said in barely a whisper.  
  
"Matt, do you have a problem with going into grade five?" Lizzie's mom asked him. Matt grimaced at the mention of the "'f' word".  
  
"A problem? Mom, saying I have a problem with it is an understatement! I am completely dreading the end of the summer!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Matt, if this is about not having as much freedom during school as during the summer, remember that you'll still have weekends," Mr. McGuire reminded his son. Lizzie shook her head. Her dad just didn't get it sometimes, and this was one of those times. He couldn't even see that Matt was afraid of starting the fifth grade.  
  
"It's not just that," Matt said.  
  
"Well, then, honey, what is it?" Mrs. McGuire asked.  
  
"Fifth grade is going to be a whole new world! There's going to be stricter teachers, which means more homework, which means less fun!" Matt wailed. Lizzie sighed. She was hoping that her little brother would have said that he was afraid of everything in grade five that she was afraid of in grade seven, and that her parents would give him reassurance and advice right then and there, and Lizzie could just modify the things that they told him to fit her, so that she could stop worrying.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Matt isn't worried about getting detention or forgetting the combo to the lock on his locker, he's worried about getting more spelling homework and not being able to spend as much time zapping his brain by playing stupid video games!  
  
"Don't worry, son, you finish your homework very quickly. I'm sure that you'll have plenty of time left over for fun afterwards," Lizzie's dad reassured him. Matt turned to his mom to see that what his father was saying was correct. Lizzie didn't blame him. Sometimes their dad could get stuff mixed up. Their mother nodded in agreement.  
  
"Matt, stop fretting and finish your broccoli," Mrs. McGuire said.  
  
Animated Lizzie: One of her favorite lines.  
  
"Lizzie, are you okay?" she asked her daughter. Lizzie had her elbows on the table, and was holding her head in her hands.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just have a headache," she replied.  
  
"Hmm, that's unusual, you don't get headaches often," Mr. McGuire observed.  
  
"It's probably just because of a change in the weather. You know, air pressure changes and everything," Lizzie said quickly.  
  
Animated Lizzie: I don't have a headache from the weather. I have a headache from all of this stress!  
  
"Well, after you finish your dinner, why don't you go lie down?" her mom suggested. Lizzie nodded in agreement. She wished that she could tell her mom that the reason she had a headache was because of all of the worrying that she was doing about junior high, but if she told her that, then all she would get out of it was a lecture about being stressed out about things that she doesn't need to be stressed out about, and one of her mom's endless stories about what it was like when she was in grade seven. It just wasn't worth it.  
  
Animated Lizzie: I would tell her, but I'm just not up for a trip down memory lane right now. 


	3. Talking About Talking

That night, after dinner, Lizzie headed upstairs to take a nap like her mom had suggested. As soon as she entered her room, though, the phone rang.  
  
"Hello?" Lizzie said, picking up her purple cordless phone and answering it.  
  
"Hey, Lizzie," Gordo said.  
  
"What's up?" Miranda asked.  
  
"Pretzel stomach," Lizzie replied. "And I have a headache from all this worrying."  
  
"See, I told you that worrying wouldn't do you any good," Gordo said.  
  
"My stomach is tied in knots, too," Miranda told Lizzie, ignoring Gordo's comment.  
  
"At dinner tonight, Matt seemed to be horrified about starting grade five, but it turns out that he is just concerned about getting more homework and not having enough time to play his video games," Lizzie said. "I was hoping that he was going to say that he was worried about being late for class, and getting detention, and having more responsibility and worrying about not being able to handle it all, so that I could hear what my parents had to say to him, and see if I could relate to it."  
  
"At the risk of sounding stupid, why don't you two just sit down with your parents and tell them how you feel about junior high?" Gordo asked.  
  
"Because they would just tell us that we have nothing to worry about," Miranda replied.  
  
"Yeah, and Gordo, please call it middle school. It makes it sound even worse calling it junior high," Lizzie added.  
  
"Listen, I have to go now, but you guys, just try to relax, okay? If you told your parents your worries, they would probably offer some guidance," Gordo said.  
  
"Easy for you to say," Lizzie said. "Your parents are shrinks."  
  
Animated Lizzie: My parents are normal people who like taking trips down memory lane during conversations about my problems.  
  
"Whatever. See you later," said Gordo, hanging up. After Lizzie had talked to Miranda for a little while longer about how bizarre Gordo's idea of their parents actually offering them some good advice about grade seven, Lizzie got off the phone with her, too. She crawled underneath the covers of her warm, comfortable bed, and soon slipped off into an uneasy sleep, her mind spinning with what Gordo and Miranda had just said in their previous conversation.  
  
"They would probably offer you some guidance," Gordo's voice echoed through her head.  
  
"They would just tell us that we have nothing to worry about," this time it was Miranda's voice.  
  
An hour later, Lizzie finally gave up on trying to slip into a deep, peaceful sleep and headed downstairs.  
  
"How do you feel now, Lizzie?" her mom asked when she entered the living room.  
  
"Huh? Oh, um, much better. A nice, refreshing nap was all I needed to get rid of that headache," Lizzie lied. Her headache was reduced to a dull ache now, instead of the intense one it was before, but the nap that she had just taken, if you could even call it that, was anything but nice and refreshing. Now she had the battle of her mind trying to decide whether or not she should talk to her mom about how she felt about starting middle school, or if she should just keep it quiet, to add to the stressful things in her life.  
  
"Oh, that's good," Lizzie's mom said. She acted pleased, but Lizzie had a feeling that her mom knew that she wasn't completely telling the truth.  
  
"I think I'm going to go read in my room for a while," Lizzie said, hoping that reading would take her mind off of middle school for a while. Lizzie's mom shot her a suspecting look. Lizzie wasn't that big of a reader.  
  
"Read?" she repeated.  
  
"Yeah, our English teacher gave us that summer reading list of cool books to check out, and the last time we were at the library I got a couple out, and I want to go read them now," Lizzie replied quickly. This was the truth. Mrs. Parker, Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo's sixth grade English teacher had assigned the whole class a reading list, and had said that if they read at least two books on it, they would have a good headstart on English class in grade seven, and Lizzie did want to read them, because then there was at least a slight chance that she wouldn't be completely lost in the fall.  
  
"Okay," her mom agreed. Lizzie turned and headed up the stairs, breathing a quiet sigh of relief that her mom hadn't seen right through her, asked her why she was reading when she only read when something was bothering her, and made her tell her all about everything that she was stressed out about. That conversation would lead to her mother reminiscing about her middle school days, and a discussion that would normally have been fifteen minutes would turn out to be an hour long.  
  
Upstairs, Lizzie tried to read her book, but it just wasn't interesting to her. It was hard to get into a book when you were a really stressed twelve-year-old and all you could think about was how much of a nightmare middle school was going to be. She was thinking of putting it down and finding something else to do when she heard footsteps on the stairs. She quickly bent low over the book and tried her hardest to look completely immersed in it. The person on the other side of the door knocked three times, and Lizzie immediately knew that it was her mom.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Mom always knocks three times before entering when she wants to talk to me about something. It's like her secret code.  
  
"Come in," Lizzie called.  
  
"Hi, honey," her mom greeted cheerfully.  
  
"Hey," Lizzie returned the greeting, looking up from her book and trying to sound as normal as possible.  
  
"How's the book?" she asked.  
  
"Huh? Oh, good," Lizzie replied.  
  
Animated Lizzie: She definitely wants to talk. She always asks me about what I am doing when she wants to talk.  
  
"Lizzie, I couldn't help but notice that you seemed a little distracted downstairs. Is there anything that is on your mind that you want to talk about?" her mom questioned.  
  
"No. It's just the headache," Lizzie lied. The side of her mind that was telling her not to talk to her mom about middle school had won the battle.  
  
"Oh, alright. If you're sure..." Lizzie's mom replied.  
  
"I'm sure, mom," Lizzie assured her mom.  
  
"Well, just remember that if you ever want to talk, I'm here," her mom reminded her as she left the room. Lizzie flopped back onto her bed. Maybe that side of her mind had won the battle, but it hadn't won the war. She was sure that she had this whole thing sorted out until she had talked to her mom about...talking to her mom. Conversations like that tended to have that effect on her.  
  
That night, Lizzie had a nightmare. She was in school, and everything that she had imagined that could go wrong on her first day of middle school did go wrong in her dream. She forgot the combination to the lock on her locker, she forgot where all of her classes were, she grabbed the wrong books for the wrong classes, and she got three dententions, as well as being assigned tons of homework. Lizzie sat up straight in her bed, breathing heavily. What a horrible dream! After fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, Lizzie finally fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. 


	4. Losing A Friend And Talking With A Mothe...

For the next four days, Lizzie just hung out at her house with Miranda most of the time. Gordo went on a camping trip with his parents like they always did the week before school started, so they could talk about how much they were worried without Gordo nagging them about stressing over nothing.  
  
"So, when's Gordo coming back?" Mrs. McGuire asked Lizzie and Miranda on the fourth day he was gone. Miranda and Lizzie were seated around the kitchen table, braiding friendship bracelets, and Lizzie's mother had just placed a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven on the table in front of them. This had become a daily ritual of theirs since Gordo had gone camping. Every day, after lunch, Miranda would come over to Lizzie's house and they would sit at the kitchen table, braiding friendship bracelets to exchange, and eating Lizzie's mother's famous homemade chocolate chip cookies while they chatted about middle school...saying how much they were looking forward to it when Lizzie's mother was around, and talking about how worried about it they were when she wasn't.  
  
"Oh, he should be home tomorrow morning," Miranda answered, taking a chocolate chip off of the plate.  
  
"Yeah, we're meeting him at the Digital Bean tomorrow," Lizzie added.  
  
"Oh, that's good," Lizzie's mom commented.  
  
Animated Lizzie: I hate it when adults ask something for no reason at all. If they are going to talk to us, they could at least have something interesting to say!  
  
"I can't believe that the three of you are going into grade seven," Mrs. McGuire said.  
  
Animated Lizzie: That's not interesting, that's just worrying.  
  
Before Lizzie or Miranda could reply, Matt's voice came floating into the kitchen from the backyard.  
  
"Mom!" he shouted. "Dad fell off the hammock again!"  
  
"Duty calls," Lizzie's mom said, darting out of the house.  
  
"There it is again," Miranda said. "The 'I can't believe you're going into grade seven' thing."  
  
"I know! I mean, people can only say it so many times before you get sick of hearing it," Lizzie replied.  
  
"Or feel sick from hearing it," added Miranda.  
  
"Yeah. I think I'm getting an ulcer from all this worrying," Lizzie agreed.  
  
"We need to take our minds off of it for a few hours. Why don't we go shopping for school clothes?" suggested Miranda.  
  
"Sure, but shopping for clothes to wear in the seventh grade isn't exactly going to take my mind off of it," Lizzie pointed out.  
  
"Oh, yeah," said Miranda.  
  
"Oh well. Let's go anyway. If we have to live through this nightmare, we should at least be styling," Lizzie said, getting up from her seat.  
  
"Mom?" she asked, entering the backyard where her mother was trying to help her father to his feet while her little brother sat at the picnic table, sipping lemonade and watching.  
  
"Yes?" her mother answered.  
  
"Can Miranda and I go to the mall to shop for school clothes?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"Sure, honey," her mom agreed. "Do you need a ride?"  
  
"No thanks, we'll walk," Lizzie replied.  
  
"Alright. Be home in time for dinner," her mom agreed.  
  
Animated Lizzie: That's code for, if you're home one minute after the streetlights go on at six o'clock, you are so grounded!  
  
At the mall, Lizzie and Miranda circled the racks of their favorite clothing store, trying desperately to find something that they considered cool enough to wear to junior high.  
  
"No. No. No!" Lizzie commented, flipping through the clothes.  
  
"Lizzie, I honestly have no clue what I am looking for, because I have no clue what is considered cool in the seventh grade!" Miranda told Lizzie as they searched through the rack. "Hey, look, there's Kate. She always been stylish, maybe she'll have a better grasp on the concept than we do," Miranda suggested hopefully, pointing to their friend, Kate Saunders, who was standing at a rack of clothing nearby with a group of girls Lizzie had never seen hanging out with Kate before.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Last year they were the popular people. You know, the girls constantly bringing doctors' notes to excuse them from gym just because they didn't want to get all 'sweaty and gross', and the only ones in the entire grade who wore make-up. I don't know their names, and I really don't care. They were really snobby to us last year, so why is Kate hanging out with them when they treated her like dirt?  
  
"Hey, Kate," Lizzie said as her and Miranda walked up to their long- time pal.  
  
"We need some fashion advice," Miranda told her.  
  
"I can see that," Kate remarked rudely, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she looked at their clothes.  
  
"Excuse me?" Lizzie squeaked.  
  
"You girls sure could use some fashion advice. I mean, just look at you! Too bad that we're too cool to be seen with you. We're pushing it just talking to you!" Kate sneered.  
  
"Kate, who are those freaks?" Miranda asked.  
  
"These are my friends," Kate answered.  
  
"I thought we were your friends," Lizzie said.  
  
Animated Lizzie: First Kate is hanging out with the cool people, now she is saying they are her friends? What's wrong with her?  
  
"Think again, McGuire. C'mon, girls, let's go," Kate said, turning and sauntering away.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Oh, I see. She got popular.  
  
"Lizzie, I think we just lost a friend," Miranda said sadly.  
  
That night Lizzie modelled the clothes that she had bought with Miranda that afternoon. After their encounter with Kate, they suddenly didn't want to look cool anymore, just in case they ended up like her, so they had just gotten clothes that they liked. Her mom and dad 'ooo-ed' and 'ahhed' over every outfit Lizzie showed off to them, while Matt just glanced up before returning to his video game.  
  
After she had modelled all of the outfits, Lizzie changed into her pajamas, then sat down on her windowseat. The window was open, allowing the cool breeze to tousle her hair and blow against her face lightly. She looked out the window at the moon, which was a silvery crescent tonight, and thought about everything that was going wrong in her life. The Kate incident that had occured at the mall that afternoon had added to her stress list.  
  
As she was thinking, she heard someone knock on her door three times.  
  
"Come in, mom," Lizzie called. Her mother entered the room, and sat down next to her on the windowseat.  
  
"Honey, I couldn't help but notice that you were distracted again downstairs, and I know you don't have a headache, and you were acting distracted while you were modelling your clothes, so what's wrong?" she asked.  
  
"Today Miranda and I ran into Kate Saunders at the mall," Lizzie said.  
  
Animated Lizzie: I am in stress overload. I don't care if my mom goes into an hour long story about her experiences in grade seven, I need advice and I need it now!  
  
"Oh, Kate! I haven't seen her all summer! Where has she been?" Lizzie's mom asked.  
  
Animated Lizzie: She's not making this any easier.  
  
"She went to camp this summer, remember? Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that when Miranda and I tried to talk to her today, she acted totally blair witch to us!" Lizzie exclaimed. Her mom shot her a confused look. "You know, evil?" Lizzie added.  
  
"Ohh," her mom said, understanding what Lizzie was trying to say now. Then it sunk in and she added, "What? Kate was mean to you and Miranda? But I thought you guys were friends! What happened?" she asked.  
  
"At camp I guess she started hanging out with the popular girls-" Lizzie started.  
  
"The ones who wear make-up and get doctors' notes to get them out of gym?" her mom asked, interrrupting her.  
  
"Yeah," Lizzie answered. "Anyway, and I guess she just became one of them."  
  
"That's really horrible, sweetie, but sometimes friends just have to go their separate ways," her mom said.  
  
"Yeah, I know," Lizzie sighed.  
  
"Well, honey, if you knew then why were you so bummed downstairs?" her mom questioned, once again looking confused.  
  
"Because that's only the beginning of it," Lizzie replied.  
  
"So, can you tell me the rest of it? Did Kate do something else to you and Miranda? Should I give Mrs. Saunders a call?" Lizzie's mom asked.  
  
"No, it's not that, it's...junior high," she said, using the name 'junior high' so that her mom would get the full impact of the situation.  
  
"What about it?" her mom questioned.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Mom just isn't getting it, is she?  
  
"I am so stressed out about it," Lizzie confessed.  
  
"But, why?" her mom asked.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Parents. You have to explain everything to them.  
  
"Because everyone is putting so much pressure on me to act responsible and mature," Lizzie replied. "First, it was my elementary school teachers on the last day of school, getting all misty-eyed because we are all growing up so fast, then it was my future middle school teachers, who basically said that if we did anything wrong, we'd get a detention, because we are supposed to act like the mature, responsible young adults that we are, and if all that wasn't bad enough, Miranda's parents, and you, and dad, and even Matt keep musing about how I am growing up so fast, but what if I don't grow up fast enough for everyone? What if I am not responsible or mature enough for everyone? What if I let everyone down?"  
  
"Honey, if that's the only reason you have been acting distracted lately, then it has all been for nothing," her mom said. "Nobody is wanting you to grow up too fast. In fact, we are wanting you to slow down, but that's not exactly an option, now is it? I am sorry if you feel that your brother and your father and I have been making you feel like you have to act more mature and responsible than you really are, and I'm sure that your teachers, and Miranda's parents wouldn't want you to feel that way, either. We want you to act as mature and responsible as you are, no more, and no less."  
  
"Really?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"Really," her mom echoed.  
  
Animated Lizzie: I guess sometimes mom's advice can be useful, and not full of her past experiences.  
  
"You know, I remember when I was in seventh grade-" her mom began, but was cut off quickly by Lizzie.  
  
Animated Lizzie: Maybe I spoke too soon.  
  
"Mom," Lizzie said in a warning tone.  
  
"Sorry," her mom apologized. "I was doing the 'I remember' thing again, wasn't I?"  
  
"Uh, yeah," Lizzie answered.  
  
"Well, if that's all you needed to talk about..." her mom said.  
  
"It is," replied Lizzie. "And, let me tell you, it feels so much better to finally get it out in the open."  
  
"That's good," Lizzie's mom said. "Now you can go back to being normal old cheerful Lizzie again."  
  
"Not so fast. I'll still be worried until the first day of junior high. Did you really expect me to be totally cool with starting middle school after one little talk with you? Sorry to disappoint you, mom, but I'm not Gordo. But, don't worry, I will only be stressing about getting a detention, or getting lost in my new school, not about being mature enough for everyone," Lizzie added.  
  
"That's good to know, sweetie. Just remember, if you want to talk..." her mom started.  
  
"I want to listen," Lizzie finished her mom's sentence perfectly. "Yes, mom, I know." 


	5. The First Day Of Middle School

It was the night before the first day of seventh grade for Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo. All three of them were in Lizzie's backyard, stretched out on their backs, looking at the stairs. Lizzie could smell the three batches of brownies that they had made cooling in the kitchen. Gordo must have been thinking of them, too, because he commented on them.  
  
"Lizzie, why did you want to make brownies when you only bake when you're nervous?" he asked.  
  
"Because I'm nervous," replied Lizzie.  
  
"Why?" Gordo questioned.  
  
"Gordo, do you know what tomorrow is?" Lizzie asked him.  
  
"Uh, the third of September?" he guessed. "Just kidding! It's the first day of middle school," he added when Miranda and Lizzie both sat up and glared at him.  
  
"Yeah, and do you know how we feel about the first day of middle school?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"Uh, nervous?" he replied.  
  
"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" exclaimed Miranda.  
  
"I know that, I just want to know why you are nervous when you both talked to your moms about it," Gordo said. Miranda had told them when she had arrived that night that she had cracked under the pressure and talked to her mom about it, too.  
  
"We aren't worried about acting more mature or more responsible than we are after talking to our moms," Lizzie said.  
  
"Not about starting seventh grade," Miranda put in.  
  
"Yeah, we are still worried about getting a detention, or not being able to get our lockers open," Lizzie agreed.  
  
"Hey, I'm worried about that stuff, too," Gordo said.  
  
"You are?!" Miranda and Lizzie asked in unison, surprised.  
  
"Don't act so shocked, guys, every sixth grader gets nervous about starting seventh grade. It's like a fact of life. I just thought that you two were overreacting about the whole situation. You just have to remember to stay calm, be yourself, and know that even if you have trouble opening your locker, or you keep forgetting where your classes are, you'll get the hang of it eventually, just like we got the hang of everything in sixth grade, even if we did get off to sort of a rocky start," Gordo explained.  
  
Animated Lizzie: He just had to bring that up, didn't he?  
  
"Oh yeah, we couldn't remember when we went to Miss Smith's class for math, and when we went to Mr. Jones' class," Miranda said. Lizzie cringed at the memory. That had been pretty tough to remember at the beginning, but after the first couple of weeks, all three of them had gotten used to it.  
  
"You're right, Gordo. Eventually, we'll get used to everything that is different from sixth grade in seventh grade, and until we do, we just have to keep a positive attitude, stay calm, and be ourselves, instead of trying to act more mature or responsible than we really are," Lizzie agreed.  
  
"Yeah, and as for the detention thing, I think the teachers will let us off the hook if we are late for classes for the first week or so. They know what it's like to not remember your lock combo or where your classes are located. As hard as it is to believe, they were seventh graders once, too," Gordo added.  
  
"That is hard to believe," Miranda said after a few seconds of thought. Then she added, "But you are right about it. They were in junior high once, just like we will be as of tomorrow."  
  
The next day went considerably well for Lizzie. Miranda and Gordo got lockers right next to hers, and they ended up being in all of the same classes, thanks to their sixth grade teachers. They only got lost twice, and when they did, the older students, who were surprisingly nice to them, helped them find their classes. They were late for one class, but just like Gordo had said, the teacher let them off the hook because it was their first day in the school. The only thing that was really bad about their day was that Kate had become majorly popular, and very, very snobby to them. Other than that, it was a pretty good day.  
  
"You know, today wasn't that bad of a day," Miranda commented as they walked down the hallway towards the exit at the end of the day.  
  
"Yeah, I hate to admit it, but you were right, Gordo," Lizzie agreed, fiddling around with the friendship bracelet that Miranda had given her a few days before. She had given Miranda the one that she had made, and was glad to see that she was wearing it then, too.  
  
"Man, does that sound good!" Gordo exclaimed. Lizzie and Miranda laughed.  
  
"I didn't really like it when Kate came up to us and started calling us babies, though," Miranda added.  
  
"Yeah, it's pretty sad to lose her as a friend, and even more sad to lose her to the popular people, but I still have you guys, and that's what really matters. I couldn't have made it through the day without you two," Lizzie said, putting one arm around Gordo and the other around Miranda.  
  
"Same here," Gordo said.  
  
"Ditto," Miranda agreed.  
  
Animated Lizzie: It doesn't really matter what I have to face - losing Kate as a friend and gaining an enemy, middle school, whatever - as long as I have Miranda and Gordo, I can get through anything.  
  
A/N: Well, that's it! Did you like my story? If you did, great, please tell me, and if you didn't, that's okay, please tell me! Also, I realize that it isn't September yet, it's barely August, but I thought that this was the best ending possible. It's been lots of fun writing this story, and I also learned something from it, too! It doesn't matter what you go through in life, as long as you have your best friends there with you. I think I'll be fine on the first day of seventh grade, because I have my best friends, Lacey and Jessi, and my long-distance best friend, Emily, to help me deal with whatever comes up. I also learned one other thing. You shouldn't try to act more mature and responsible than you really are, you should just be yourself, because if people don't like the way you really are, then they don't really matter. Look forward to another Lizzie fic from me soon! Until then, xoxo Lyss :) 


End file.
